Chelsea source denies financial trickery over 2024 deal for player now in League One | OneFootball

Omari Kellyman is finally finding his feet in the senior game, and a source at Chelsea is denying he was signed as a sort of financial instrument.

The Athletic’s piece about Omari Kellyman is really interesting, taking his resurgent form as a chance to consider his move to Chelsea in the round.

The £19m paid to sign him from Aston Villa has been mocked – firstly as an excessive fee for an unproven young player, but secondly as a form of PSR “plusvalenza”, where both Chelsea and Villa effectively traded Kellyman for Ian Maatsen plus £10m, giving both a little breathing room on their balance sheets by selling home grown “pure profit” players in return for incoming deals that could have their value spread over five years.

Chelsea tracked Kellyman for 2 years before swooping

Omari Kellyman playing for Cardiff. (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)

But “sources” at Chelsea speaking to Simon Johnson, who wrote the piece, deny this. They say that Chelsea “were keen on signing the attacking midfielder from Derby County two years earlier, and he remained on their wish list after going to Villa Park in 2022.”

We don’t doubt that. Of course Kellyman was a talented youngster they were aware of. But there’s also no denying that the value of his transfer was massively inflated, and when you combine that with the equally puffed up Maatsen deal, there’s only one explanation.

In other news…

Ben Foster used to play with Joao Pedro at Watford, and having seen his recent form at Chelsea has changed his mind on the striker.

Jon Obi Mikel is never afraid to share his opinion, and he’s come out today and said that Chelsea have made a “massive mistake” with one of their January moves.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: